Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library. Special Collections

Santa Cruz, California 95064

Abstract: This archive documents the over fifty titles published by the Press; the business and distribution activities of the Press;
and the cultural environment in which the Press existed (represented by feminist, literary, political, and business publications
received by the Press). It also includes material related to the Press's Peppermint Press and Better Duck Productions imprints.

Physical location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice is required for access to the papers.

Language:
English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections.

Shameless Hussy
i am one of the true hussies;
i have no shame;
i was a housewife, and
stretched from the housiness of it (hus)
and the wifiness of (wif/hus-wif) to
a woman who cant bear wifedom (hussy) / i
grew beyond the house, like alice after eating
too many cookies. exactly what i did; i ate
too many cookies; lovers, poetry, moving my
body in a new way, an old way, the way women
like me have always moved, largely; with great
motions beyond our allotted sphere, with more
need than fear, and more grace than shame.
Alta

Shameless Hussy Press was started in Oakland, California in 1969 by Alta (Gerrey) a poet
and prose writer. She published three of her own books as well as the first poems of
influential writers, Susan Griffin and Pat Parker and the first edition of the
ground-breaking play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow
Is Enuf" by Ntozake Shange and new editions of "Lavinia" and "Haunted Pool" by George
Sand. Alta also published many other feminist writers, mostly women, and children's
books by her own children and others. Shameless Hussy Press was the first
feminist/women-owned press in America and influenced other presses and publishers such
as Women's Press which published in the seventies in Oakland, California. Alta continued
Shameless Hussy Press until 1989.

The Shameless Hussy Press Archive is part of the California Feminist Presses Collection which is a project of the University
of California Women's Studies Consortium.

Note

The following chronological list contains publications by Alta whether published and printed by Shameless Hussy Press or not,
and publications distributed but not published by Shameless Hussy Press.

If we know where the poems come from why don't we just go there: a collection of poems from "Women making poetry" offered by Alta at UC Extension Workshop, fall 1975. San Lorenzo, CA: Shameless
Hussy Press, 1975.

The Shameless Hussy Press was a small press founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1969 by Alta (Gerrey) and specializing in poetry, books related to women, and children's books. The archive documents the over fifty titles
published by the Press; the business and distribution activities of the Press; and the cultural environment in which the Press
existed (represented by feminist, literary, political, and business publications received by the Press). It also includes
material related to the Press's Peppermint Press and Better Duck Productions imprints.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.